356 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



Then we had some rails, such stiff uns ! dasher hits 

 them with all four legs, and chucked The Squire 

 right on to his neck ; Clinker took 'em like a bird. 

 We were each in a mess then ; The Squire he lands 

 in a bog, and his horse makes a dead stop, it did 

 take a deal out of him ; then I jumps right into a 

 dung heap, up to Clinker's knees ; we had no manner 

 of idea the things were there. Going up John o' 

 Gaunt's field we were together, but I turns to get 

 some rails in the corner ; he was such a good one at 

 rails was Clinker ; I thought he was winning, but 

 deary me, down he comes at the last fence, dead 

 beat. Clinker he lays for some minutes, and then 

 he gets up as lively as ever ; the horse looked in no 

 manner of form, as round as a hoop for all the world, 

 as if he was going to Horncastle Fair. They held 

 Clasher up, and they flung water in his face, and he 

 won in the last hundred yards from superior training, 

 and that's the honest truth. Many didn't like 

 Clinker, but I never got on so good a steeple-chaser. 

 I'll tell you one though that was better, that's Cor- 

 ringham; I won the Grantham Steeple Chase on 

 him, and Mr. Greene bought him for 200 guineas. 

 How hard " The Squire" did ride that match day 

 to be sure ! I.^ent up to call on him one afternoon 

 at St. John's Wood, and he pointed to that picture 

 of the finish, hanging up just opposite the fire-place, 

 and he says to me " Dick, that Clasher and Clinker 

 day beat me a deal more than the 200 miles." He 

 was at his horse all the way. He gave me a mount 

 on Tom Thumb, that great trotting-horse of his, that 

 week ; I rode him round TattersalPs paddock ; it's 

 like flying. I felt fit to tumble off; I thought he 

 was going right away from under me ; how he did 

 step out to be sure ! 



Clinker beat Radical easy ; I was pilot that journey, 

 it was all I could do to keep ahead on 'em ; Polecat 

 got cast in a ditch, when Pilot ran with her ; I was 



